Another reason a Browns stadium in Brook Park is unlikely: no sin taxes to pay for it. Today in Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- If the Browns want to move to Brook Park, could they take millions of dollars of sin taxes set aside for stadiums?

Not under current rules. We’re talking about how the sin taxes are specific to the lakefront stadium on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.

You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.

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Here’s what else we’re asking about today:

If the Cleveland Browns make a deal with the city to renovate the football stadium where they play, the city could provide a chunk of money in sin taxes to help pay for it. If Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam were to build in Brook Park, which they say they might, could that sin tax money be used for a new stadium there?

The most striking video we’ve seen in a while is of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore collapsing after getting slammed by a ship that lost power. We have a bunch of bridges over the Cuyahoga River and a lot of freighter traffic down below. Could what happened in Baltimore happen here?

Some pharmacy chains are making an interesting argument before the Ohio Supreme Court about why a $650 million opioid epidemic judgment against them in Lake and Trumbull counties should be thrown out. Does it sound like an argument that might win the day?

For the second time this year, the Ohio Supreme Court has refused to step in and aid groups that can’t get past Attorney General Dave Yost with proposals for the ballot. The first group is trying to create new voting rules that Ohioans likely will reject, as they go against common sense. What is the second group trying to get before voters, and why has Yost stopped it?

Cuyahoga County officially proposed Tuesday to move the board of elections and other officers to a building near and dear to our hearts, the former Plain Dealer building on Superior Avenue. What is the second major county operation that also would move in?

The Cavs, Bedrock Real Estate and the Cleveland Clinic unveiled their plans for the Cans new practice facility on the banks of the Cuyahoga River. It’s pretty striking. What does it show?

You don’t hear much about it this year, but last year the RSV ailment was everywhere, hitting kids and adults alike. It was so bad that heading into this year, health experts pushed us to get the RSV vaccine. Now, those experts have good news for parents of infants who want to avoid this scary virus. What is it?

There might be a tiny bit a good news for people who want to save the Huletts, those towering cranes that once worked in wondrous rhythm to unload ore ships on the Great Lakes. What is it?

Given how unpopular he was when he arrived in Cleveland, with all those women accusing him of inappropriate behavior during massages, is Deshaun Watson’s connection to a new Cleveland Heights restaurant likely to be a good thing for sales? What is the restaurant?

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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.

Chris (00:03.345)

We’re having a big news week and it’s only Wednesday but news is what we talk about on Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the playing dealer. Chris Quinn, I’m here with Courtney Astolfi, Laura Johnston and Lisa Garvin and Courtney wrote the most important story of the day yesterday and we’re going to get right to it. If the Cleveland Browns make a deal with the city to renovate the football stadium where they play.

The city could provide a big chunk of money in syntaxes to help pay for it. But if Brown’s owners, D and Jimmy has them or to build in Brooke Park as they’re threatening in what could just be a chess move, could that syntax money be used for a new stadium in Brooke Park? Courtney, you’re the one with the answers.

courtney (00:50.978)

Yeah, so I guess the answer is technically it could, but it would face a huge giant uphill battle. And I think the takeaway here is knowing that the syntax money would probably not necessarily follow the Haslam’s to Brook Park. And you’ve got to remember how important the syntax is here. You know, the current tax ends in twenty thirty five, but it could very well be extended again. And it’s been relied upon since the inception of Gateway back in the nineties to fund.

our sports stadiums in Cleveland. And this most recent agreement, you know, dedicates a third of the syntax revenues to the city of Cleveland. If the Hanselms think this money that’s currently allocated to Cleveland’s Lakefront Stadium in downtown Cleveland, if they think that money could follow them to Brook Park, you know, that’s probably not the case here. You know, it would require the city and county.

to go in and amend a 2016 revenue sharing agreement that would allow that money to go somewhere else other than the current Lakefront Stadium in downtown Cleveland. And to get there, the Haslums would need the approval of Cleveland’s mayor, Cleveland city council, the county executive and county council. And mayor Justin Bibb didn’t weigh in when we asked him, would he even consider doing this? But council president Blaine Griffin did.

said Cleveland probably wouldn’t move to amend that agreement. And even if the remote chance that it did, there would have to be big wins and big gains for the city of Cleveland signing that money away. So this does not look likely.

Chris (02:29.133)

It’s not going to happen. I mean, that’s the problem is everything about this says this isn’t going to happen. This seems like it’s just a big grift by the Haslums to pressure Cleveland into putting more money on the table. Cleveland has an offer on the table for renovating the stadium, which is estimated to cost about a billion dollars. You know, we’ve speculated it’s probably in the 300 million dollar range, which is probably about what the city could afford.

And Haslam’s want more. You know, you’ve heard from multiple people, they want half, which City’s not doing. So this is a game. It started with the leak that went to that blog that’s wrong as often as if it’s right about this project. The unsourced and everybody went gaga. All the media in town except us went and reported it like it was fact. The buzz dies down and then this week, the Haslam’s come out and say it on the record. Yeah, we’re looking at this, but.

We’re going to spend 18 months to two years thinking about it, putting huge pressure on bib because the whole downtown development plan is in the middle of this that could get held up because of what they’re doing. It’s all a gigantic game. Why would the Hasms who are wealthy beyond words, invest one and a half to $2 billion of their own money in something that doesn’t return the investment? It just doesn’t make any sense. They want to be on the lakefront. The whole lakefront plan was their idea to start with.

but they want more money from the city. And the city is not giving it to them because let’s face it, Courtney, city voters don’t care about stadium. They can’t afford to go there.

courtney (04:01.942)

I mean, 100%. I think with the original syntax went through, Cleveland voted against it. Cleveland doesn’t have the appetite, maybe county folks and the outlying suburbs and counties do for the Brown Stadium. Okay, so if the Haslams want a lot of public subsidy, it seems like the money would be coming from the Cleveland option. If they want to go in and do the Brook Park thing,

Lisa (04:02.663)

I mean, 100%. I think with the original content, Cleveland voted against it. They have the appetite, maybe, the county folks and the out-buying some of the companies do for the Browns. You know, so if it happens one, a lot of coverage up to these, it seems like the money will be coming from the union.

courtney (04:30.086)

it’s hard to see how they don’t cover almost all of the cost and that would be double the price tag for them. I mean maybe the state kicks in some, maybe the county kicks in some, but not necessarily the county’s got a boatload of capital needs it needs to prioritize. So they’re going to privately fund it and I don’t know that would be of interest to the Haslums.

Lisa (04:37.767)

maybe the county.

Chris (04:44.965)

There’s no way.

Chris (04:52.217)

The county has no money. I mean, I don’t know how the county’s gonna pay for the justice center because all their money’s going to the jail and there’s a little bit leftover. So there’s no county money coming. Look, if the Hasems wanted to build in Brook Park, they’d buy the land they’d build in Brook Park. To say we’re gonna spend two years messing around is the dodge. It’s where, this is just a con. Let’s get the city to cave and it won’t work. I don’t think the city’s gonna cave.

courtney (04:57.836)

Right.

Chris (05:18.501)

What is it? Fewer than 10% of the people in that stadium are from Cleveland. They’re all from the surrounding area. What I don’t understand is why the Haslums, knowing this was out there, if they were going to be smart, they didn’t push for the creation of some kind of regional authority on facilities. Knowing that we have a huge bill coming up for Cleveland Hopkins Airport, which is used by everybody in Northeast Ohio, knowing that we have a constant stadium problem that we deal with every 10, 15 years.

Why not seek a regional model using all of their Republican friends in Columbus to create an authority to deal with that? Because then there might be a funding mechanism that would pay for some kind of stadium that you could put anywhere you want. Instead, they’re going after one of the most poverty-stricken cities in the country, trying to get more money out of them when they just made billions selling off Pilot J.

You are listening to Today in Ohio. The most striking video we’ve seen in a while is of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsing after getting slammed by a ship that lost power. We have a bunch of bridges over the Cuyahoga River and a lot of freighter traffic down below. Could what happened in Baltimore happen here? Laura.

laura (06:34.551)

The answer is very simple. No, the Cuyahoga is crooked, but it’s narrow and none of the bridges we have over it have pillars in the water. I mean, if we had a pillar in the water, no barge would ever get through. The tight turns that those lakers have to make to get up to the steel plant is in intense. And that’s about a mile up the river. That’s navigable part of the river for cargo ships. And the part that if you live in Cleveland, you’re probably thinking about.

The rest of the river is about 100 miles long. It’s a U shape goes all the way up to Geauga County through Summit County. And there are a ton of major bridges over the Cuyahoga. If you think about it, I-90, I-480, I-271, the Turnpike. Some of those are super high up and people are scared to drive over them. Like the 480 bridge has a bad reputation, but those are over the entire river valley and the pillars are on dry land. So

Lisa (07:23.49)

for the entire river valley. So I hope there never is a bridge disaster in Cleveland, but it’s not going to be if we ever had one. The bridge, the way they made a bridge. We have much more.

laura (07:28.615)

I hope there never is a bridge disaster in Cleveland, but it’s not going to be, if we ever had one, the idea of a ship ramming a bridge pillow.

Chris (07:39.073)

Yeah, we have much more of a threat like we had in Minnesota a decade or so ago, where the deterioration of the bridge plates. We have a couple of bridges that don’t have redundant systems like the one in Minnesota, and that is the threat. We have to maintain those because if one part goes, the whole thing comes down, but no barge could hit it. Are any of the pillars, you’re not going to know the answer to this, but are any of the pillars close enough to a roadway where a big heavy truck could take it out?

laura (07:42.519)

Yes.

laura (08:08.771)

That’s an interesting question. And if you drive down the valley in the Cuyahoga National Park, you’ll go right by the pillars for both the Turnpike and 271. So maybe because that’s a very curvy road, you could lose control. You could run off the ravine and hit a pillar. But that’s not the same kind of massive, massive barge that we’re talking about when it comes to Baltimore. And that’s what

some officials that Corey Schaeffer and Laura Hancock talked to yesterday said that even if something hit it, we don’t have that kind of massive vehicle. So even if it’s a tractor trailer with two, I don’t know what you call those, but the two loads, that’s nowhere near the impact that came from that ship, which when you look at that video, it looks like it was made of toothpicks the way that bridge comes down.

Chris (09:04.977)

Yeah, it’s something we’ll never, I mean, we’ve never seen anything like it. I do wonder if there’s another Cleveland angle to this story though, because the port traffic in Baltimore is completely shut down and it’s one of the busiest ports in the nation because of its location and how close it is to all forms of transportation. A ship that big couldn’t make it through the waterways that get to Cleveland. But I wonder if there is port traffic in Baltimore.

laura (09:24.737)

No.

Chris (09:30.341)

that could make its way here through the waterways because Cleveland has access to all those forms of transportation, rail and trucks. And they have stepped up their business traffic like that. I wonder if they’re on the phone trying to deal with some of these shippers that are now panicking because they have to figure out a way to get their stuff where it needs to be.

laura (09:52.587)

I think that’s a good question because remember during the pandemic when so many things were just stuck on ships like out in the LA Harbor, just waiting to get unloaded and we asked could they come here? And you’re right, the massive ship we’re talking about could never come to Cleveland. The Salties, that’s what we call it, there’s Lakers and there’s Salties in the Great Lake and the Salties come through the oceans and they have to go down the St. Lawrence waterway.

Lisa (10:15.259)

They have to go down the same lake. Same, more waterway. They’re actually smaller than the lakers. They never reach the lake. They’re more in the water.

laura (10:19.147)

They’re actually smaller than the Lakers that never leave the lake because the St. Lawrence is tight there. And the shipping season is open. So they’re probably getting ocean going vessels. I’ve seen them in the port of Cleveland. It’s an interesting question. We talked to Will Friedman, like I said before, when they were doing all these delays and they were trying to get more port traffic in Cleveland, trying to say, hey, look, you can come here. I think shipping obviously is a slower mode of transportation.

than trucks. So I don’t know how easy it is to say, all right, we’re gonna put everything on smaller ships, or I don’t know if there’s a way to transfer between a big ship and a small ship without going to land, but I think that’s a really interesting question.

Lisa (10:50.799)

I don’t know if they’re the way to transfer between the big ships and the small ships without going to land. But I think that’s a good point. Yeah. This is one of the places where we can transfer between the big ships and the small ships without going to land. But I think that’s a good point. Yeah. This is one of the places where we can transfer between the big ships and the small ships without going to land.

Chris (10:59.489)

But maybe there are small ships going in there too. Look, one of the crises that’s going on is it’s not just they have to redirect the ships, they got to redirect all the trucks that were going to meet the ships. So wherever the ships go now, they got to get trucks there to get the stuff or trains. And we have a great transportation network in Cleveland so we could easily get the trucks there. We’ll check it out today and see if there’s any possibilities. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.

Some pharmacy chains are making an interesting argument before the Ohio Supreme Court about why a $650 million opioid epidemic judgment against them in Lake and Trouble County should be thrown out. Lisa, does it sound like an argument that might win the day?

Lisa (11:46.095)

It’s hard to say, but the Ohio Supreme Court is going to be taking it up. So the pharmacy chains, CVS Health, Walmart, and Walgreens Boots Alliance are asking the Ohio Supreme Court to rule on whether that judgment for Lake and Trouble counties in the opioid settlement is allowed by state product liability laws. So just a little recap, back in 2021, a federal jury found these pharmacy chains fueled the opioid crisis with lax dispensing practices.

and the defendants went to the Sixth Appeals Court, which is asking the Supreme Court to settle this case for once and for all. So they’re focusing on a legal theory that’s used by the plaintiffs as said that defendants created a public nuisance, but does the law allow such a claim on products such as prescribed opioids?

So a public nuisance is something that when someone or some thing interferes with the right of the general public. So think about loud music, factory emissions and the like. The pharmacy’s attorney, Jeffrey Wall says, product liability law specifically disallows public nuisance claims. Lake and Trumbull, he said, bought a product liability case disguised as a public nuisance case.

And the assembly said that they, the general assembly, our lawmakers said they didn’t want nuisance cases on products because they warned of a creep in that, you know, in that situation.

Chris (13:10.081)

I get to see the justices buying that argument. There is legitimacy to what they’re saying. I’m surprised that this, maybe it was, an issue in the original trial, but it’ll be interesting to see how that goes down or whether it goes down on party lines or something. But it does feel like they use the product liability as a way to get their nuisance case heard.

Lisa (13:34.875)

Yeah, so it’s all going to, you know, hinge on the Supreme Court’s determination of what is and isn’t a public nuisance.

Chris (13:42.581)

Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. For the second time this year, the Ohio Supreme Court has refused to step in and aid groups that can’t get past Attorney General Dave Yost with proposals for the ballot. First group is trying to create new voting rules that Ohioans likely would reject as they go against common sense. What is the second group trying to get before voters and why has Yost stopped it?

laura (14:07.235)

Again, we’re talking about a title. So this title that the proponents would like to use is the Protecting Ohioans’ Constitutional Rights Campaign. And they’re trying to get this signed off by Yost so they can start collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures by July in order to get it on the November ballot. But Yost has not signed off on this written summary. That would appear on the petitions that the group must circulate that tells the voters what the proposal would do. And so they’re suing. They’re saying...

he hasn’t approved this. It’s not fair. And the Ohio Supreme Court is taking the case, but not going to fast track it. So that means like the other case we just talked about, I don’t think there’s a way that they’re going to be able to get on the ballot in November, unless they came up with some really palatable language very quickly. And what this would do is it would make it easier to sue over excessive force and police cases. And so when you say

protecting Ohioans constitutional rights, that is not clear what this is about.

Chris (15:11.053)

Now Dave Yost has a point in both of these cases. He’s saying your title doesn’t tell voters what it is. What I’m a little bit surprised is that they went to court before trying to use just simple language for what it is. If they turned in a simple language title and he rejected it, even though it did describe what it was about, you would think they’d have a stronger case. But their title doesn’t tell you anything about what this is.

laura (15:36.983)

I agree. And there’s a lot of ballot measures coming out Ohioans these days. I think we should be as transparent as possible about what it’s about and not try to play tricks with titles and language. And I agree that Yost makes a lot of sense here.

Chris (15:56.097)

Dave Yost signed off on the abortion amendment last November. He put out a press release saying, look, I don’t agree with what’s going on here, but my job isn’t to put my personal thoughts in. It’s to make sure it follows the law. Our determination is the title and everything about this follows the law and it can be on the ballot. So it’s not like he has a history of allowing politics to alter what he does. He has a good point here. I’m surprised these groups just won’t do.

the straight ahead thing and write with clear language. Maybe they just need good editors. Ha ha.

laura (16:27.395)

Well, everybody needs an editor. I’m a firm believer in that. But both campaigns have said Yost has no legal authority to challenge the amendment’s title. They said that he’s approved other amendment summaries with similar titles in recent years that in that his predecessor, who was attorney general before him, Mike DeWine, approved identical summary title a decade ago. And I don’t know the details of all of those past ballot issues. And I understand that would be incredibly frustrating.

But that doesn’t mean it’s wrong to enforce the law now.

Chris (17:00.225)

Yeah, just because they didn’t do it right in the past doesn’t mean they should never do it right again. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Cuyahoga County officially proposed Tuesday to move the Board of Elections and some other offices to a building near and dear to our hearts, the former Plain Dealer Building on Superior Avenue. I worked there pretty much for 20 years. What is the second major county operation that would also move in though, Lisa?

Lisa (17:29.063)

Yeah, we got the details from Cuyahoga County Council President Chris Renne. He came and talked to the editorial board with an entourage on Monday to talk about these properties plans. So as we said, the Board of Elections will be moving into 1801 Superior.

but also some Health and Human Services operations will be moving to 1801. They will retain and remodel their current Virgil E. Brown building and they will either sell or lease the troubled Jane Edna Hunter building. So Health and Human Services will pay about 39% of the lease with their own funds. And then the remainder of that lease payment would come from the County General Fund in proposed legislation. So yeah, this is pretty exciting.

you know, they’re excited because this is part of a big consolidation plan. The board of elections, health and human services is scattered over several buildings like the health and human services. They’re in Virgil Brown and Jane Edna Hunter, but they’ve also leased four other buildings across the county. So this will be a way to consolidate operations for both the board of elections and the health and human services and give that building at 1801 new life, and they say they’re very excited about moving into it.

You know, the Board of Elections only had 48 parking spaces. 1801 has closer to 800, I believe. Yeah. So they’re very excited about moving into our old home.

Chris (18:53.933)

In a funny moment, we asked about this. When we redid that building in 2013, 2014, outside my office was a larger than life picture of Jimmy DeMora with the handcuffs on, being led out to the police car when he finally got arrested in the county corruption probe. And we said, okay, it’s gonna be a county building now. What happens to that mural? And it led to a good bit of laughter and they’re not sure what they’re gonna do with all the artwork in there. Look, this is a good...

Lisa (19:18.825)

Hehehe

Chris (19:22.069)

a good use of that building because there is no place else downtown that pretty much is a city block. There’s a tiny corner of it that is not part of this, but it has tons of parking. It has a parking garage on it that is a money pit. We spent millions on it and it continues to deteriorate, but it has a lot of spaces and the landlord is on the hook for fixing it up. Plus when you go to vote, you’re going to be in this big, bright, sunny room.

that’ll just give you a nice lift. Putting the human services there consolidates that in a way that makes a lot of sense as well. This just seems like a good move. I did hear from some people asking about why they’re leasing it instead of buying it. And there were a couple of reasons for that. One is they don’t really have the bonding authority to buy anything because they have to build the justice center as we mentioned earlier and do the jail. But also leasing it alleviates them

from having all the maintenance costs. Like we said, that garage will need lots of money, and the landlord will have to keep up the building. When they did the balance sheet, they found that leasing actually would be cheaper than buying. But it’s gonna make for a much easier voting process, and there’s a possibility, remote possibility, but a possibility they’ll open it up for in-person voting, early voting, for the presidential election this year.

Lisa (20:45.083)

Yeah, that was pretty exciting. We weren’t sure if it was going to happen. Their timeline, they said that it would take most of this year to execute the lease on 1801. They were hoping to move the board of elections in 2025 and health and human services in 2026. But yeah, they did say it was a possibility that people could vote there this November.

Chris (21:04.213)

Yeah, the one hitch they said is they can’t do that and not be guaranteed it’ll work because you can’t have one of the largest counties in the state screw up voting on election night for a presidential election year. Can you imagine what Donald Trump would do with that and the fixing of the vote? So it’s probably a remote possibility because they cannot allow that to go astray, which they fully acknowledged. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.

The Cavs, Bedrock Real Estate and the Cleveland Clinic unveiled their plans for the Cavs new practice facility on the banks of the Cuyahoga River. Courtney is pretty striking. What does it show?

courtney (21:42.266)

Yeah, it shows a large facility on the banks of the river that, you know, bedrock folks and other local leaders really see as an anchor for bedrock’s vision for the riverfront. Right. So this is kind of the first piece of the puzzle. We’re finally starting to see, you know, the fruits of these plans that bedrock has to remake Tower City Center and the Eastern Bank of the Cuyahoga River along it. This is kind of a, you know, a kickstart of that whole plan. And.

The official renderings yesterday of this Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center, you know, it shows as Bedrock CEO Kofi Bonner told us that this thing is gonna be, it’s aimed at being a practical workout space for the calves, but it’s also meant to be, you know, a healthcare facility focused on wellness, nutrition, mental health, physical therapy, cardiovascular health and other things. And they kind of see this building as a two-pronged thing. Yeah, sure, it’s a practice space for the calves.

But as County Executive Chris Ronane said, it also is bringing those healthcare benefits and they see the public engaging and using those clinic offerings that are gonna be at the center downtown too. And what I find so interesting here is how this ties in to the broader plans for the riverfront being spearheaded by Dan Gilbert’s group. One CAVS official told us at this press conference yesterday that the idea here is...

there will be activity at the center members of the public are coming in and with their with their plans to really open up and connect the riverfront with the city center through tower city, which is what bedrock’s envisioning. They see this as, you know, adding to the flow of people who come up through tower city and go down to East fourth street or check out other things in downtown Cleveland, they see this as a connection to the rest of down.

Chris (23:34.157)

Dan Gilbert and Bedrock are kind of the opposite of the Cleveland Clinic. When, when they put together a project, they don’t do it halfway. They usually invest and try to make it pretty special. This has that look. It was interesting. They’re combining with the clinic, which puts up mirror boxes out in the Huff neighborhood, but this looks pretty spectacular. I’ll wait to hear what Steve Lit says because he’s has a much better aesthetic sense of how these spaces can work.

but from what you could see and what they released yesterday, this looked like a pretty dramatic visage for the waterfront.

courtney (24:09.938)

Yeah, it’s going to be a large facility here 210,000 square feet. It’s expected to be one of the largest, you know, facilities of this kind around, and there will be a tunnel connecting it to rock and rocket mortgage field house, which the calves see as a boon for their players and, and making it easy to move between them that they see that as a positive for the team and you know at the same time, Kobe Aldman of the calves.

kind of points out yesterday in the press conference that we’re coming home to Cleveland. You know, the practice facility’s been outside of Cleveland for so long. This is a benefit in that category as well for the city’s revenues.

Chris (24:51.089)

Yeah. Isn’t it interesting that they did this on the very day that we’re talking about the Browns carpet bagging out of town? Fascinating difference there between the Cavs and the Browns. And look, let’s face it, bedrock has a role in the downtown development. So if the Browns play around for two years on the stadium, the bedrock folks are going to be held up too, because they have a lot of plans they want to get going with.

You’re listening to Today in Ohio. You didn’t hear much about it this year, but last year the RSV ailment was everywhere, hitting kids and adults alike. It was so bad that heading into this year, health experts pushed us to get the RSV vaccine. Now those experts have good news for parents of infants who want to avoid this scary virus. Laura, what is it?

laura (25:40.763)

It’s effective. So the new respiratory succinctial virus vaccine, that’s why we call it RSV because that’s hard to say, for the infants is 90% effective and that prevents them from being hospitalized with the illness. Not that they’re never going to get it, but it is not going to be so severe. So if you don’t get the maternal version when you’re pregnant, which you could do that and the benefits will be passed on to your fetus, you should get the infant one for your child once they’re born.

And RSV causes severe infections in some people, especially premature infants, older adults, people with heart and lung disease, and anyone with a weak immune system. It’s actually the leading cause of hospitalization among infants in the United States. So it is really good news that it’s working, and this is a way to keep your kids safe.

Chris (26:26.209)

Yeah, it is. It’s a kind of remarkable vaccine. Remember how sick everybody was in the fall of 22? I mean, it seemed like every school was getting pounded by RSV, and we haven’t heard much about it at all this season.

laura (26:39.963)

No, we were talking so much about the high flu levels. And I think, obviously, there’s still COVID out there. And every winter, these things get worse, these respiratory viruses. So if you can protect yourself, then yeah, do it. Obviously, not everybody can get an RSV vaccine. I can’t. I’m not old enough, or I totally would.

Chris (27:00.521)

I got it. I got it. I’m eligible. And of course, two of the people on this podcast today are fighting off some illnesses. We’ll go without names here.

laura (27:09.419)

We don’t have vaccines for colds yet. It’s not like, hey, you’re never going to get sick. We’re just trying to keep people from dying.

courtney (27:17.038)

Thanks for watching!

Chris (27:17.801)

You’re listening to Today in Ohio. There might be a tiny bit of good news for people who want to save the Hewlett’s, those towering cranes that once worked in very wondrous rhythm to unload warships on the Great Lakes, including Cleveland. Lisa, what is it?

Lisa (27:34.031)

Yeah, the Port of Cleveland has a contract with Maple Leaf Demolition of Canton to remove the components of those two Hewlett or unloader cranes from Whiskey Island, where they’ve been sitting at the bulk terminal since 1999 when they were disassembled. The job will begin immediately, and they hope to have those components removed in April and May. They chose Maple Leaf because the company says they’re going to try and reassemble one entire Hewlett on a site that they own in Canton.

Owner Chance Ayers says he’s personally passionate about this project. He’s excited for the chance to reinstall one of these historic machines on a site that was once used for steelmaking. But if they’re unable to reassemble it, the contract requires that they set aside a bucket and a leg for one year to give others a chance to display it. We’ve tried several times in Cleveland and it never went through.

Chris (28:26.053)

Does this seem strange that you would erect a Hewlett in landlocked Canton, far, far from the Great Lakes where they were famous?

Lisa (28:35.527)

Not really. I mean, if they’re going to save it, I mean, they could kind of create a park around it. I don’t know. It doesn’t seem all that far fetched to me.

laura (28:42.111)

It’ll get all those people who are traveling to the football hall fame.

Chris (28:42.138)

That’s it.

Chris (28:45.701)

to go and see the Hewlett. I don’t know. I’ll be interested to see if it actually happens. I wish they would just put together some kind of model that you could see, a working model at the science center or something so that people could see just how impressive these things were. They were a Cleveland invention. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Given how unpopular he was when he arrived in Cleveland with all those women accusing him of inappropriate behavior during massages,

Is the Sean Watson’s connection to a new Cleveland Heights restaurant likely to be a good thing for sales? Courtney, what is this restaurant?

courtney (29:22.906)

Yeah, we’re talking about Lefty’s famous cheesesteak and grill. Watson is an equity owner in this company that’s based in Detroit. They have 38 locations and a lot of them up in Michigan. And Watson wants to bring them to the Cleveland area. Kind of the idea from the company is that this would be an anchor store and it would kind of open up the Ohio and Cleveland market to Lefty’s famous cheesesteak. They’ve got big designs on expanding their franchises here.

The one in University Heights is going into, I believe an old KFC building. It’s set to open on April 4th and Watson’s going to be there for opening day. Our reporter Mark Bona talked to Sam Barry, who’s the owner and founder of Lefties. And he basically made a case for why this is a good partnership and a good business decision. He said, Cleveland is Watson’s hometown now. And from a marketing standpoint, this partnership, it works.

Chris (30:20.109)

I don’t know. Does anybody get the feeling that Cleveland has gotten past what it felt about him and now embraces him in such a way that they would show up for a meet and greet at his new restaurant? You do. You think people are completely in with him? Lisa?

Lisa (30:30.284)

Yes.

laura (30:31.373)

No.

courtney (30:32.354)

Nope.

courtney (30:35.754)

No.

laura (30:35.807)

I don’t think so, but people do love their food. I can see them being like, well, I really like cheese steak. I’m not a huge fan of Sean Watson, but I’ll go for the cheese steak. And I think that KFC has been empty since before I moved to the West Side eight years ago. So that’s a good news for that corner.

Chris (30:50.645)

Yeah, Lisa, expand a little bit on what you said.

Lisa (30:56.707)

Well, you know how I feel about Deshaun Watson. I’m like way outside everyone else’s opinion of him, but aren’t we supposed to give people second chances? I mean, come on.

Chris (31:07.705)

Yeah, I’m not saying what should happen. I’m asking, do we get the feeling that people have moved on? Everybody embraced Joe Flacco last year when he took him to the playoffs. I just don’t know whether that’s been overcome. I guess we get far fewer emails about it than we did. We got a lot of.

Lisa (31:16.115)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa (31:24.175)

Yeah, and it’s hard to say because he was injured, you know, for most of the years. So he wasn’t, you know, on the, you know, he wasn’t on the field, you know, trying to redeem his reputation.

Chris (31:29.135)

Yeah.

Chris (31:35.169)

Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. That’s it for Wednesday. Thank you for listening. Thanks Courtney. Thanks Laura. Thanks Lisa. We’ll be back Thursday.